Hubert Houben (athlete)

Hubert Houben, 1924

Hubert Houben (born February 24, 1898 in Goch , Kleve district , † November 9, 1956 in Krefeld ) was a German athlete and Olympic participant who was one of the world's best sprinters in the 1920s . His greatest success is second place with the German 4 x 100 meter relay (together with Georg Lammers , Richard Corts and Helmut Körnig ), which won a silver medal in Amsterdam in 1928 and set a world record with 40.7 s. At the age of 30 he also took part in the 100-meter individual race at these Olympic Games , but was eliminated in the semifinals (10.7 s).

Life

Hubert Houben worked at a bank in Krefeld and devoted his free time to athletics. In 1922 he became known for running world record in a competition in Leipzig . He achieved international renown at a Berlin evening sports festival. On August 6, 1924, he defeated the US sprinters Charles Paddock (holder of the 100-meter world record) and Loren Murchison (later Olympic sixth in 1924 in the 100-meter run). In the same year he won the 220- yard run at the English Open Championships, and in Copenhagen he improved the 100-yard world record to 9.5 s and has since been considered the fastest runner in the world.

He was denied participation in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris , as German athletes were not allowed to participate as a result of the First World War . Houben was thirteen times West German champion, nine times German champion and twice English champion.

Hubert Houben began with athletics in his home club SV Viktoria Goch , he later started for CSV 10 Krefeld, Preussen Krefeld and TuS Bochum 08 . In his playing days he was 1.69 m tall and weighed 67 kg. He later became a sports journalist in Krefeld and worked as a referee in athletics. He died of throat cancer at the age of 58. In Krefeld the Hubert-Houben-Kampfbahn is named after him, in Goch the Hubert-Houben-Stadion and the Hubert-Houben-Straße .

literature

• Klaus Amrhein: Biographical manual on the history of German athletics 1898–2005 . 2 volumes. Darmstadt 2005 published on German Athletics Promotion and Project Society
• Scharenberg, Swantje: The construction of public sport and its heroes in the daily press of the Weimar Republic. (= Schöningh Collection on the past and present). Paderborn: Schöningh 2012. ISBN 9783506771179

Web links

Commons : Hubert Houben  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hubert Houben in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Upswing through Hubert Houben. (Viktoria Goch Club Chronicle)